JUST WATCHED

Report: Violations at chemical company

MUST WATCH

Story highlights

The Charleston area has experienced 3 hazardous material incidents over 5 years

The chemical, coal industries are politically and economically powerful in West Virginia

Safety, health advocates cautiously optimistic response will be different this time

West Virginia is recovering from another hazardous health crisis -- a toxic chemical spilled into the Elk River that poisoned the water supply for hundreds of thousands of residents.

Safety and health advocates are cautiously optimistic things will change following the leakage of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol from a storage tank belonging to a company called Freedom Industries. But that appears doubtful based on past experiences.

"Chemical Valley," as it's known, has a less than stellar record. This is the third major accident in just over five years.

In 2008, a Bayer Cropscience pesticide explosion killed two workers and injured eight others. Two years later, three consecutive accidents at a DuPont plant released a deadly nerve agent used in World War I, killing one worker.

Elected officials have been reluctant to take on industries that contribute millions of dollars to political campaigns and also employ tens of thousands of people in the state, which is dependent on these high-risk, high-reward industries.

Neil Berch, an associate professor of political science at West Virginia University, said the latest incident raises the same debate that followed past chemical spills -- as well as questions about the erosion of mountains from mining and deadly accidents relating to coal, including the Massey Energy Upper Branch Mine explosion of 2010, whicht killed 29 miners.

"There's always a tension between the economic benefits ... and the environmental issues," he said.

Even Nye, who is lobbying for better safety measures for chemical tanks, is sympathetic.

Her father worked for the chemical companies and she acknowledged that it's a dominant source of livelihood for West Virginians.

"It's what the economy is dependent upon," Nye said.

The chemical industry employs more than 27,000 West Virginians and boasts that the average annual wage is $78,000. The coal industry, which is even more powerful in the state, employs 60,000 people.

Manchin: We'll find chemical leak culprit

MUST WATCH

JUST WATCHED

'Can't say' water's safe in West Va.

MUST WATCH

And both the coal and chemical industries fiercely fight additional oversight that they say is too costly.

On the front page of the West Virginia Coal Association's website, a banner blares: "Let EPA hear from America today. EPA policies are hurting real people!" referring to the Environmental Protection Agency.

And just three days before the chemical spill, the American Chemical Councilresponded to proposed safety topics of discussion. While the organization said it would support some ideas, it said it is "concerned" that some options would "further complicate an overly complex regulatory system by creating requirements for assessing safer alternatives."

In response to the most recent chemical accident, the chemical industry group said in a statement: "If careful examination suggests that new steps are needed, ACC will work with members of Congress to ensure any new rules are targeted and minimize unintended consequences."

Berch said elected officials are most concerned with "keeping the coal industry alive."

Those tensions are apparent as elected officials are measured in their response, and it crosses party lines.

In an interview on Friday on CNN, Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat and a former governor, said he is "not going to cast guilt on anybody."

Manchin said, however, that he would push for legislation that would require inspections of chemical tanks near water.

In the House, Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, who represents Chemical Valley and is running for Senate, has called for a congressional investigation. She said she supports a review by the Chemical Safety Board.

But both Manchin and Capito have repeatedly made sure to separate the latest spill from the coal industry, even though the chemical involved is used in that industry.

"We have the country we have today because of the coal that has been provided, a lot of it from West Virginia, that has given us the life that we have and the wars that we have won and everything that we have taken for granted," Manchin told CNN.

"The incident that happened with this spill is not related to my view of the EPA, of overreaching and not looking at economics and trying to reach a balance in the energy industries," Capito told The Charleston Gazette. "I see this as a chemical issue, and so the coal issue is secondary."

Fueling elected officials' soft approach is a deep distrust of the federal government among West Virginians, who feel forgotten and insignificant to Washington.

"The sentiment of the people is probably related to the influence of coal," Berch said, as coal runs successful campaigns against government intrusion.

The federal government has also failed to protect West Virginia residents from deadly chemical and coal accidents.

In this instance, Angie Roser, executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, said at least three federal laws, including the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act, should have provided oversight of the chemical tanks, but that the local Department of Environmental Protection hasn't been on the site since 1991.

While federal laws are going unenforced, state and county laws are failing to fill in the gaps, she said. No local law exists that requires the inspection of above-ground chemical storage tanks.

And at a second facility owned by Freedom Industries, inspectors have cited five violations, including for storage and containment.

"We are deeply disappointed in the CDC for recommending a screening level before receiving all relevant studies and information, which has resulted in confusion, fear and mistrust among Kanawha Valley residents," they wrote in a letter to the CDC.

In the latest incident, seepage from the tank entered the soil, found its way to the Elk River and then entered a water plant downstream.

Nye said she can still vividly remember the oxygen liquid blast in 1978, when she was 8 years old, that killed three people. In addition to the 2008 and 2010 chemical accidents, Nye said there have been many more smaller-scale ones.

"I am concerned with all the tanks; there are so many of them," Nye said, saying they are too numerous to even know how many exist in Chemical Valley. "You name the chemical and we've got it."

She said she has lived through numerous shelter-in-place orders to protect against chemical accidents. More disturbingly, she said there have been accidents when people should have been ordered to stay indoors but weren't, because it's up to the chemical company to admit and determine the hazard -- a system that allows for little accountability, Nye said.

She is optimistic that things will change this time.

"I think because so many more people were impacted, the response will be different," Nye said.

Local West Virginia officials are signaling that more oversight is necessary and numerous local and federal investigations have been launched.